Customer Challenges SGM Has Helped to Address

SGM Works With Organizations to Address the Following Customer Challenges

"I work in a position that is considered to be high level with regard to customer access, and at the same time, many of my fellow sales and marketing peers are in some of the same key accounts that I see. Healthcare providers talk about the need for communication and continuity, yet as an organization we aren't practicing those same principles...we rarely talk with other members of our sales or marketing teams! What can we start doing that will put us on the right path to sharing information more formally and developing more compelling product positioning?

"Our more tenured sales people are having a tough time getting enthusiastic about the more mature products they must represent. They tell us that customers only see them when there are new products or new indications to present. What can we do to find higher level connections that we may be missing and which may give us a greater competitive advantage?"

"My people know that decisions are being made above their call points in their accounts, but they don't have the skills or tools to access those influencers."

"Every time we talk about strategic account plans we end up with a plan full of marketing programs. There is very little about the customer in those plans and there is almost never anything strategic in them."

"Access. In a word, my people need better access to time and dialogue with customers and instead of that access increasing, it's decreasing rapidly. What good is a marketing message that isn't targeted to identified customer needs within an account (clinical, professional, and organizational needs), and delivered to a person who can influence the decision at all levels?"

"In my position we are not permitted to even mention a competitor or a competitive product by name. But at the same time, I am being attacked every day by organizations and sales people who don't seem to play by the same set of rules. What can I do to be better prepared, handle these competitive moves, yet stay within the guidelines that our organization has set regarding the competition?"

"We're stuck in thinking that worked well for 30 years, but it isn't working any longer and everyone knows it; they just don't know what to do next."

"We are essentially locked out of an account because one of the key influencers once worked for our major competitor. What can we do to get around these kinds of issues so that someone will at least listen to our story?"

"Our sales people have outstanding technical backgrounds and many of them have worked in the institutions we sell to. The biggest problem I have is getting some of these representatives to move out of their comfort zones and start calling on other and higher level influencers. What can you do to help us there?"

"A high percentage of our sales people do not plan. They feel like the planning tools we give them are only for tracking them and for providing information in case an account is transitioned to another member of the team. How can we help these folks see the value of strategic account plans so that they not only 'fill them out' but use them as living documents?"

Have a specific issue you would like to gain our perspective on? Email us and we will get right back to you.